There’s a funny thing about dirty hits: nobody professes to want them, but fans as a group really don’t mind having a player with a dirty reputation on their team. They worry about an opponent with a penchant for predatory hits, but just as often they want to see ‘a little bit of crazy’ from their team to force the opposition to play a little bit scared. They especially like to see it from guys who can play regular minutes.

That’s why there has been something of a mixed reaction – even a laudatory reaction – to Taylor Hall’s dangerous hit on Cal Clutterbuck Thursday night from some who follow the Edmonton Oilers.

Cult of Hockey colleague David Staples explained his reasoning this morning – that since the NHL isn’t serious about taking dirty hits out of the game, it’s only logical to expect a star like Hall to occasionally cross the line to send a message:

In a league where that kind of borderline play is tolerated, even encouraged, it’s naive to condemn Hall for such a hit, even as I recognize that the hit was dangerous and reckless and agree that Hall deserves a suspension… My bottom line: the NHL won’t stand up for all the star players who are regularly abused by goons, grinders and enforcers, so I’ve got little problem when one of those star players stands up for himself and his team.

It comes down to the young men who the Oilers have drafted to take them to the promised land, and the players who are on the ice with them, to change the tide, to stand up for themselves, to stop being the 110 pound weakling. It’s the old Charles Atlas commercial: you’re on the beach with your best girl, some musclebound guy comes over, kicks sand in your face and starts talking to her.

You have three choices: watch and lose, run away or stand up and defend your ground. Last night’s hit was a long time coming, the Wild have been beating the Oilers about the face and hands since Boogaard and before. Whatever else happened last night, at least one Minnesota Wild player is going to have his head on a swivel next time. No pantywaist’s on the Oiler side, brother.

It is a view of the team that is not limited to Oilers fans – hockey analysts from all over have long complained that the Oilers have drafted a bunch of skill but not nearly enough grit or competitiveness. In the first period of last night’s game, Sportsnet commentator and long-time NHL coach Mike Keenan could not wait to blast the team for exactly that reason, hammering their lack of “personality” and the competitiveness of players like Mark Messier and Kevin Lowe.

Last night, Taylor Hall answered those criticisms. The team mostly didn’t show up – and Hall himself has had far more effective games – but with that vicious hit Hall showed he wasn’t going to take it lying down, that he’s willing to cross the line if necessary to make a statement. (This isn’t a new thing with Hall, despite the fact that he’s often inaccurately labeled as a small skill guy – that’s something Clutterbuck’s teammate, Jonas Brodin, can verify.)

In some ways, this is exactly what people want to see. Writing about Raffi Torres and players like him last year, I explained that for all the moralizing around the league, teams were interested in players who could do exactly what he does – play aggressively while taking a regular shift:

It’s also a role that people like Torres will keep playing, at least until such time as the NHL’s collective molasses mind decides that seeing stars leaving the ice on stretchers is a bad thing, and takes the logical step of making all head-shots illegal. Andy Sutton does many of the same things for Edmonton right now – he was suspended twice for dirty hits, though neither saw a star opponent leave the ice on a stretcher. Milan Lucic, who earns covetous glances from fan-bases around the league, is at least as bad – his run at Ryan Miller’s head was one of the filthiest plays in the NHL this season. The collective will continue to condemn specific players for specific incidents – like Matt Cooke was for the Savard hit, or like Torres has been condemned for the hit on Hossa now – but in the off-season and at the trade deadline they’ll just as loudly clamber for management to add exactly that kind of player to the lineup.

Ultimately, though, I find myself in disagreement with Staples and Mitchell. While the primary responsibility for change rests with the men at the helm of the NHL, there needs to be consistent pressure on the league to change the way the game is played. It should never be okay to bend or break the rules to hurt a guy on the other team; we should never be excusing a borderline hit that sends the other guy off on a stretcher. What Hall did was wrong, whether he did it intentionally or not. I understand the counterargument – essentially, to borrow a line, that it’s difficult for players like Hall to be decent men in an indecent time. It’s still wrong, and those of us who dislike the NHL’s negligence on these sort of plays shouldn’t be shy about saying so.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.